The year in local music and dance 2008: simply stunningBy Susan L. Peña Reading Eagle Correspondent”1. The Mingus Big Band, presented by the Kutztown University Performing Artists Series, Jan. 30. It would be difficult to find a better band, and its devotion to performing the brilliant works of Charles Mingus makes it a national treasure.”

Charles Mingus,
the unstoppable jazz bassist and composer, died in January 1979. So
this stand, teetering on the cusp of 30 Years Later, doubles as a
commemoration. But as with any Mingus tribute, the music — carried out
by the sturdiest of repertory groups, with guests like the trombonist
Ku-umba Frank Lacy and the trumpeter Randy Brecker — will foster
revelry. (Barbecue is likely to help on that front, too.)

At 7:30 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, ticketweb.com.
The first set is $125, including a three-course meal and gratuity; the
second is $195, including a three-course meal, gratuity and Champagne
toast.”

“One of several bands entrusted with the daunting task of preserving Charles Mingus’s raucous, bighearted legacy, the ten-piece Mingus Orchestra has all the depth and muscle needed to render the master bassist-composer’s tempestuous fantasias.”

The December issue of Jazz Times has an article by Nat Hentoff in which he highlights recent Mingus activities that are expanding the cultural and educational impact of Mingus music throughout the world including the upcoming Mingus High School Competition, the publication of new charts, the Simply Mingus series, and the touring bands that frequently include clinics and workshops. He also issues a rallying cry to additional institutions to embrace the canon.

“….The combo played for three lunch periods while also recording tracks for a compact disc they will use to enter an upcoming Charles Mingus competition.The students were so absorbed in their playing that when the third period finished, they thought they had only played for two.A live audience helps their performance and a live audience with people who wanted to listen was even better. “You get a different vibe,” said teacher Brian Messier. They wanted that energy captured on the recording.The combo, which featured a trumpet, tenor saxophone, guitar, base guitar and drums, launched into the Mingus tunes “Better Get Hit in Your Soul” and “Pithecanthropus Erectus….”

From Bill Kirchner:”Recently, I taped my next one-hour show for the “Jazz From The Archives” series. Presented by the Institute of Jazz Studies, the series runs every Sunday on WBGO-FM (88.3).Sy Johnson (b. 1930) is a Renaissance Man of jazz. He’s a gifted arranger-composer, pianist, singer, writer, photographer, educator, and raconteur.We’ll hear examples of Johnson’s arrangements for Charles Mingus, the Lee Konitz Nonet, and the current Mingus Big Band and Mingus Orchestra.The show will air this Sunday, November 23, from 11 p.m. to midnight, Eastern Standard Time.NOTE: If you live outside the New York City metropolitan area, WBGO also broadcasts on the Internet at www.wbgo.org.
http://www.jazzsuite.com/”

By Bob Lange

“These
aren’t just words from Charles Mingus. He didn’t always manage to make
things simple, but one of the many amazing things about Mingus Ah Um
is that he took this incredibly challenging jazz, in perhaps its
creative heyday, and made it as easy as pop music. That’s not to say
that he dummied it down. He didn’t. He did exactly what he said, made
the the complicated awesomely simple. What that means is that it’s as
easy as a pop record, but the ride is as fascinating and wild as
Mingus’ later more “difficult” albums. Pop stars of the day, like
Sinatra or Nat King Cole, were pleasant, easy to digest artists while
guys like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane were pushing the limits of
music as it was known at the time. Mingus Ah Um doesn’t split
the difference between those two schools, but rather fully accomplishes
the goals of both, something that may not have happened again in
popular music until Revolver and Sgt. Pepper almost
a decade later. It set a standard for pop music to explore, to be
avant-garde, and rock music in particular owes a tremendous debt to
that spirit.

As great as Mingus Ah Um is, I’ve only
ever heard it on CD until now. Legacy Recordings has re-issued this
classic on 180 gram vinyl and it’s like hearing the album for the first
time. Its already abundant warmth is warmer and the sound more natural.
If you own the CD, this is the perfect time to pick up the vinyl and really hear it the way it was meant to be heard.”

“The Mingus Big Band, one of three rotating groups that makes up this weekly celebration of the music of Charles Mingus, cannot be contained on the intimate stage of the Jazz Standard, forcing some of their lead brass players into the audience. The 14-piece ensemble fills the room with loud and forceful melodies that swing so hard they erupt into inspired improv. It’s a fitting tribute to the prolific avant-garde composer, and his widow, Sue, is often present to provide context to important works. The band has many friends — including the Late Show with David Letterman’s Paul Shaffer who recently sat in on piano.”– Chris Kompanek

“Hommage à Nesuhi” (Rhino Handmade)—The late record executive Nesuhi Ertegün may not have possessed the celebrity of his younger brother, Ahmet, but his visionary production work for Atlantic Records with John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Ray Charles, Hank Crawford, and others made him a behind-the-scenes legend. This five-disk tribute was the last project completed by Joel Dorn, the producer who followed Ertegün at Atlantic and who died late last year.

“If President-elect Barack Obama wants to make a bold cultural statement—one that resonates deeply with his autobiography and with the legacy of his adopted hometown, Chicago—there’s a compelling way to do it:

Teach the White House to swing (again).

That’s what President Jimmy Carter did in spring 1978, casting the unique brilliance of a presidential spotlight on a distinctly American art form. Carter convened a galaxy of jazz luminaries at the White House, to spectacular effect. Eubie Blake (at 95), Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Teddy Wilson, Max Roach, Louie Bellson and other giants performed jubilantly on the White House South Lawn, basking in the kind of official recognition jazz richly deserves but rarely receives. Anyone who follows jazz never will forget the sight of a wheelchair-bound Charles Mingus, a musical icon then and now, weeping openly as President Carter praised him at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave….”

Paul Shaffer from Late Show with David Letterman stopped by to hear the Mingus Big Band at the Jazz Standard on Monday night, November 10th, and found himself performing an entire set at the piano, instead! He soloed on a brand new arrangement of “New Now Know How” and swung magnificently on “Song with Orange.” Here are some photos! (Below with trumpet player Lew Soloff.)

Obama fever has been bubbling up for months, of course, including in the largely progressive realms of jazz across the land and here in the jazz Mecca of N.Y.C. Buzzes of anticipation could be felt the night before in clubland here. Monday night is hardly an “off” night in New York: It is when big bands and special projects take up residencies, including the ongoing presence of official Mingus bands, most recently in the vibe-filled basement of the Jazz Standard. (While there, check out the savory BBQ from the host eatery, Smoke.) Great to know that Charles Mingus’s unique songbook and spirit is alive and well in the city where his creative fire raged.
During last Monday’s set by the seven-piece Mingus Dynastyband—featuring tenor player Seamus Blake, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, Kuumba Frank Lacy, etc.—alto saxist Craig Handy greeted us with, “Welcome to the Jazz Standard, on the night before the world changes. Hopefully, when we go to Europe on tour, they won’t throw tomatoes at us anymore.” The band launched into one of Mingus’s politically barbed chestnuts, “Fables of Faubus.”

Thursday, December 4Ken Schaphorst conducts NEC Jazz Orchestra: Music of Charles MingusKen Schaphorst directs the NEC Jazz Orchestra in the performance of music by Charles Mingus. Program will include many of Mingus’s most beloved compositions, including Boogie Stop Shuffle, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Sue’s Changes, Children’s Hour of Dream, and The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife are Some Jive-Ass Slippers.The NEC Jazz Orchestra was named Best College Big Band in the 2004 Downbeat Student Music Awards, and performs original music and traditional big band repertoire under the direction of Ken Schaphorst and guest artists.FreeNEC’s Jordan Hall
8pm

Mingus Orchestra at Jazz Standard tonight and tomorrow, Mingus Big Band all weekend

Wed, Oct. 8 2008

IT’S HERE! MINGUS AT JAZZ STANDARD in NYC.Monday, October 6 MINGUS MONDAYS kicks off with a full week of Mingus, with all three bands and special guests.Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30, with an extra 11:30 set on Fridays and Saturdays. Doors open an hour prior.Jazz Standard features wonderful Blue Smoke BBQ. There is never a minimum.Look at this lineup:

★ MINGUS DYNASTY AND ORCHESTRA (Monday through Thursday) After a long residency at Iridium, the Mingus repertory juggernaut has settled in at the Jazz Standard for a spell. Monday and Tuesday will feature the Mingus Dynasty, a seven-piece band that includes the saxophonists Craig Handy and Seamus Blake. On Wednesday and Thursday the Mingus Orchestra, an ensemble with some unusual timbres — like French horn, bass clarinet and bassoon — holds court. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $25 and $30. (Chinen)

JAZZ STANDARD116 E. 27th St. (212-576-2232)—Charles Mingus’s widow, Sue Mingus, keeps the music of the master bassist alive with the Mingus Dynasty, the Mingus Orchestra, and the Mingus Big Band. They’ll be here on Mondays, with rotating weekly appearances. To settle in (they were in residence at Iridium in recent years), the groups are spending a few days at a time onstage. Last week belonged to the Mingus Dynasty. On Oct. 8-9, the Mingus Orchestra, which focusses on his compositions, takes over. Oct. 10-12: The Mingus Big Band is in the house. Oct. 13: Mingus Mondays get rolling in earnest with the Mingus Dynasty.

IT’S IT’S HERE! MINGUS MONDAYS AT JAZZ STANDARD in NYC.Monday, October 6 MINGUS MONDAYS kicks off with a full week of Mingus, with all three bands and special guests.Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30, with an extra 11:30 set on Fridays and Saturdays. Doors open an hour prior.Jazz Standard features wonderful Blue Smoke BBQ. There is never a minimum.Look at this lineup:Monday Oct. 6, 2008
DYNASTY

Friday, October 3 and Saturday, October 4: MINGUS BIG BAND in L.A. as part of the celebrations for the new Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center in Watts. The band will be playing at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park, and the Warner Grand in San Pedro. More info on the Tour page.Trumpets: Greg Gisbert, Sean Jones, Lew Soloff
Saxophones: Seamus Blake, Mark Gross, Jaleel Shaw, Jason Marshall, Scott Robinson
Trombones: Clark Gayton, Conrad Herwig, Earl McIntyre
Drums: Justin Faulkner
Bass: Andy McKee
Piano: Kenny Drew, Jr.

…In addition to the Watts Towers Drum and Jazz Festivals, there will be three major Jazz concerts focusing on the music of Charles Mingus. Two concerts, one at the Madrid Theater in the San Fernando Valley, and the other at the Warner Grand Theater in San Pedro in the southern tip of the City, will feature the music of the Charles Mingus Big Band. The final concert is envisioned as a gala tribute and will take place at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in the Mid City/Leimert Park community. It will feature LA-based, nationally recognized musicians who played with, or were deeply influenced by, Mr. Mingus….

“It’s hard to describe the sound of a 14-piece jazz orchestra playing the work of Charles Mingus … it was just sensational, the crowd went wild, and Marcus Johnson was also probably the best I’ve ever heard him.”

“A new youth arts center in Watts run by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs will have its grand opening later this month during a weekend when two festivals will be happening. Named after the famous jazz musician and past local resident, the Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center will expand space for youth arts programs. The new building, which is next to the Watts Towers Arts Center, will bring more classroom space expanding the department’s educational classes that give children a safe and creative atmosphere for individual expression with guidance and direction from professional artists.”

All that and a pork pie hat: Fifth annual Silver Spring Jazz Festival
by Chris Slattery…”Sue Graham Mingus says the Mingus music is a perfect fit for a festival focused on young performers, local talent and community togetherness.”This music has enormous energy,” she says. “It really demands that individual musicians come in and play themselves, tell who they are. There are lots of open spaces.”The Mingus oeuvre of more than 300 compositions can be challenging, and rewarding, for musicians and listeners alike. The score of his orchestral masterpiece “Epitaph” is 500 pages, and there’s a whole sub-genre known as “Simply Mingus” that’s recommended for students. But Sue Graham Mingus wants her husband’s legacy to include his sense of fun and wonder – and empathy.”Charles appreciated the idea of risk and surprises,” she says.”That’s what we associate with jazz. You take risks, and stumble sometimes, and recover. We thrive on the unpredictability and excitement.”

PDF of This releaseMedia Contact: Theresa Mullen, 646.747.7217, tmullen [at] ushgnyc.comMINGUS MOVES! TO JAZZ STANDARD IN OCTOBER
• ANNOUNCING MINGUS MONDAYS AT JAZZ STANDARD
• MINGUS DYNASTY, ORCHESTRA & BIG BAND ESTABLISH
A NEW LONG-TERM RESIDENCY AT NEW YORK’S FOREMOST JAZZ CLUB
• OUTSTANDING MUSICIANS FROM ACROSS THE GENERATIONS
FILL THE RANKS OF THREE GREAT BANDSNEW YORK CITY/AUGUST 28 — Jazz Standard and Sue Mingus announced today a new home for the music of legendary jazz composer/bassist/band leader Charles Mingus. Beginning with a gala week of performances in October, the Mingus organization will begin its long-term residency at Jazz Standard with alternating weekly appearances by Mingus Dynasty, the Mingus Orchestra, and the Mingus Big Band. Monday nights at Jazz Standard, beginning October 6, 2008, will be known as “Mingus Mondays”.The new extended engagement kicks off October 6-7 with performances by Mingus Dynasty – the original Charles Mingus legacy group, formed by Sue Mingus from among his most valuable sidemen shortly after their leader’s death in 1979. Although lineups are still being confirmed at press time, recent editions of Mingus Dynasty have included saxophonists Craig Handy, Seamus Blake, and Jaleel Shaw; trombonists Conrad Herwig and Ku-umba Frank Lacy; and pianists Orrin Evans and David Kikoski, with the redoubtable Boris Kozlov (bass) and Adam Cruz (drums) holding down the rhythm section.The excitement continues October 8-9 with the Mingus Orchestra. Sue Mingus assembled the Mingus Orchestra in 1999 to focus on Charles Mingus’ compositions, with less emphasis on extended soloing. The Orchestra’s distinctive sound emerges from an expanded repertoire and a diverse instrumentation that may include bassoon, bass clarinet, French horn, and guitar. From October 10-12, the Mingus Big Band will hold forth at Jazz Standard. Writing in The New York Times, Jon Pareles hailed the Big Band for having “revived Charles Mingus’ repertory and the brawling, muscular, hard-swinging, bluesy way he wanted it played.””We are delighted and honored to have Jazz Standard chosen by Sue Mingus as the new home for this timeless music,” said Seth Abramson, artistic director for Jazz Standard. “The genius of Charles Mingus’ compositions and arrangements is matched by the talent and enthusiasm of the players in each of these three outstanding bands.”

“mingus is an advanced music theory and notation package for Python. It can be used to play around with music theory, to build editors, educational tools and other applications that need to process music. It can also be used to create sheet music with LilyPond.”

by Zan Stewart…while none of the participants had played with the master, they delivered his 1950s-through-1970s works with the kind of verve, spark and precision that he demanded, and that anyone who had heard him live would recognize, and regale in….

by Tom Feran….Jazz legend Charles Mingus abandoned his monumental masterpiece, “Epitaph,” after one aborted performance. But the rediscovered score has been completed and performed by new generations. National Public Radio is streaming the full, 2½-hour piece for 31 musicians, plus an hourlong special and background story, free at www.npr.org/music. Also new there this week is a 2½-hour concert from Tom Waits’ “Glitter & Doom” summer tour.

JOHN HANDY QUINTET (Friday through Sunday)
From NYT:
“Best known for his work with Charles Mingus and Randy Weston in the late 1950s, John Handy is still a musician of flexible means; here he plays alto saxophone, clarinet, oboe and saxello. Craig Handy (not related) joins him on tenor saxophone; their top-flight rhythm section consists of Helen Sung on piano, Dwayne Burno on bass and Victor Lewis on drums. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an 11:30 set Friday and Saturday, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $30; $25 on Sunday.”

Mingus Big Band 6/10 and 6/17 at Iridium, 6/18 at Clifford Brown Festival

Mon, Jun. 9 2008

Mingus
music heats up in the summertime!
Some old favorites rejoin the mix, and this
Tuesday we have both Strickland brothers in the band at the same time!
Plus, for the next few weeks at Iridium we’ll be preparing for the Clifford Brown festival,
so we’ll be featuring some material from Epitaph, and a Clifford Brown tune the band will perform in his honor.PERFORMANCE DATES:Tuesday,
June 10 Mingus
Big Band atIridium
(51st and B’way) in New York CityLineupTrumpets: Alex Sipiagin, Earl Gardner, Kenny RamptonSaxophone: Marcus Strickland, Mark Gross, Donny McCaslin, Abraham
Burton, Lauren Sevian

Trombones: Conrad Herwig , Clark Gayton, Earl McIntyre

Drums: E.J. Strickland

Bass: Boris Kozlov

Piano: Bruce Barth

TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30. $25/half-priced for students both sets.

Tuesday,
June 17
Mingus Big Band atIridium
(51st and B’way) in New York City

Wednesday, May 21 The Mingus Dynasty was asked to perform at a swanky fundraiser for Barack Obama
at the brand new HUDSON TERRACE 621 W. 46th at 11th Ave. Event is from 7-11pm, Dynasty plays at 9pm (Also on the bill before the Dynasty, the Ahn Trio, and Hilary McRae.) Tickets are available here. Lineup: Wayne Escoffery, Tatum Greenblatt, Jaleel Shaw, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Boris Kozlov, Helen Sung, and E.J. Strickland.

Tuesday, May 27 at Iridium in New York City
Lineup: Mark Gross, Wayne Escoffery, Kenny Rampton, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Boris Kozlov, David Kikoski, Donald Edwards.
TWO SETS 8:30 AND 10:30.

Reissue of the Year
* Cornell 1964, Charles Mingus Sextet (Blue Note) Large Ensemble of the Year (9+ pieces)
* Mingus Big Band The Awards will be celebrated Wednesday, June 18, at a cocktail reception 3 to 6 pm at the Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St., NYC).Finalists, honored for excellence in jazz and jazz journalism, will be voted upon by professional members of the JJA toward selection of a representative recipient (aka “winner”).

And Sirius
celebrates the birth of Charles Mingus with music curated by his widow
Sue Mingus. Every hour, throughout the day, listeners will hear a
Mingus tune and Sue Mingus will explain the significance of each one. Tuesday, April 22, starting at 6 am to 12 midnight ET.

A jazz festival will be held over two weekends in Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico in a joint effort to honor the late Charles Mingus. Mingus, who played and composed for most of the jazz greats, was born in Nogales, Ariz., and died in Mexico, and this is the second time the two communities, known collectively as Ambos Nogales, have worked together to hold a jazz festival in Mingus’s honor.

By Andrea Canter
Mingus Big Band Birthday Celebration, Coast to Coast on April 22ndEvery Tuesday night, one of the Mingus legacy bands takes over the bandstand at the Iridium Jazz Club in Manhattan to celebrate and promote the music of legendary bassist Charles Mingus. On April 22nd, the Mingus Big Band further honors the 86th birthday of a man of divergent, often controversial tastes and a singular mission to create music. The celebration will not be limited to the Iridium, however, as a second edition of the Mingus Big Band will perform at Yoshi’s in San Francisco as well on April 22nd, then move to across the Bay to Oakland, April 24-27. Additional Mingus celebrations will be broadcast on Radio WKCR and Sirius.

The Yale Jazz Ensemble, led by Music Director David M. Brandenburg, will open for the Mingus Big Band on Tuesday, April 22, 2008, Charles Mingus’ birthday, at 6:30 pm at the Iridium Jazz Club (1650 Broadway at 51st Street). The Ensemble will be joined by special guest Niko Higgins, saxophone. There is a $10 minimum with no cover charge. (There is an additional charge to stay for the Mingus Big Band.) Call (212) 582-2121 or visit iridiumjazzclub.com for more information.Founded in 1991, the Mingus Big Band performs the music of legendary composer and bassist Charles Mingus. Under the artistic direction of Sue Mingus, the group tours widely in the United States and abroad, and has recorded nine albums, six of which have been nominated for GRAMMY Awards. Since 2004, the Mingus Big Band has performed every Tuesday night at the Iridium Jazz Club, which has been hailed by New York Magazine as “New York’s Best Jazz Club”.Niko Higgins is a saxophonist and composer who lives in New York City where he leads the Niko Higgins Ensemble. His two albums, “Inbetween” (2003) and “From Eye to Ear” (2006), are released by Engine Studios.The Yale Jazz Ensemble (YJE) is an eighteen-piece big band that performs a wide variety of music, from Yale’s Benny Goodman archive to the newest and most progressive jazz compositions. The Ensemble has performed extensively in the United States and internationally at such venues as New York’s Village Vanguard and London’s Ronnie Scott’s. The YJE has performed with or opened for The Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band, the World Saxophone Quartet, Jane Ira Bloom, Jimmy Owens, and Branford Marsalis.

Mingus Birthday events April 22, 2008

Tue, Apr. 8 2008

Two Mingus Big Bands play coast to cost.Also,WKCR hosts its annual 24-hour Mingus broadcasthttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/wkcr/Sirius celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month
Mingus on Mingus
Sirius celebrates the birth of Charles Mingus with music curated by his widow Sue Mingus. Every hour, throughout the day, listeners will hear a Mingus tune and Sue Mingus will explain the significance of each one.
Tuesday, April 22, starting at 6 am to 12 midnight ET.

The New York Canon:
Books From Norman Mailer to Rem Koolhaas, 26 works of lapidary New Yorkitude.
By Sam Anderson

CHARLES MINGUS, BENEATH THE UNDERDOG, 1971
Charles Mingus was categorically uncategorizable: white, black, Asian; bassist, bandleader, composer; L.A., New York. He always insisted that his music was not jazz: It was Mingus music. This whacked-out half-fictional memoir (cf. his early experiences as a pimp) is not autobiography: It’s Mingus writing. It makes today’s fictioneering memoirists look like stenographers, and vacuum-seals the mid-century scene’s flavor more potently than mere fact ever could.

Friday, April 11, 2008, 2:00 – 3:45Abstract:”Mingus, Cassavetes, and the Politics of Improv”

“Jazz is orgasm, it is the music of orgasm, good orgasm and bad, and so it spoke across a nation… it spoke in no matter what laundered popular way of instantaneous existential states to which some whites could respond, it was indeed a communication of art because it said, ’I feel this, and now you do too.’” — Norman Mailer, “The White Negro”

Norman Mailer’s remarks in his controversial 1957 essay speak to a collision and melding of the races in popular culture that we still witness today. Yet nowhere are Mailer’s themes embodied more fully than in John Cassavetes’ seminal independent film of the same year, Shadows, which featured an original score by Charles Mingus. This lecture examines the complex and explosive collaboration of Cassavetes and Mingus, two of the United States’ leading improvisational artists, at a pivotal moment in the history of independent cinema, jazz, and race relations.

Through an integration of film clips, texts, and still photographs, this presentation examines connections between the film’s loose narrative—of three mixed-race siblings living day-to-day in mid-50s New York bohemia–and the film’s revolutionary making, which in many ways inverted the plot. In Mingus’s score, which Cassavetes edited severely, one finds the truest expression of the film’s exploration of cultural identity. The score encapsulates Cassavetes’ and Mingus’s unique approaches to both improvisation and composition in their respective media, illuminating the oppositional nature of jazz to mainstream cultural production—and in turn, the underbelly of race relations in 1950s America.

Mingus and Monk
Show #2526Explore the music Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk, New Sounds-style. From Cuban percussionist Anga to the Massachusetts big band Either/Orchestra, from ex-Police guitarist Andy Summers to avant-garde composer George Crumb, the echoes of Monk and Mingus can be heard in a wide variety of new settings. We’ll sample a few of the more unusual renditions of their classic tunes for this New Sounds program.

…Simply put, the Mingus Big Band is a wonder and an anomaly. During a time when the few surviving big bands, like the Count Basie Orchestra and Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd, tour the world like beautiful museum treasures, the Mingus Band has taken a musical legacy and transformed it into a creative force that generates a contemporary originality and vitality all its own. They are an important part of the current jazz scene and a constant reminder that jazz—big band jazz, at that—is not merely entertainment but a powerful art form and means of expression. Kudos to this band, to Sue Mingus, and to the extraordinary and tragic man whose spirit pervades it all—the late, great Charles Mingus.

…It takes a certain musician to play the demanding, eccentric works of Mingus, the late jazz bassist and composer. The Mingus Big Band, under the offstage direction of Sue Mingus, Charles’ widow, has 14 such musicians, all world class, spanning several generations. It is perhaps the most racially integrated large ensemble operating today.

The group’s weekly gig at Iridium in New York has given it an extraordinary solidity and sense of daring. Heavy snow couldn’t keep the Philly audience away.”

…the Mingus group, with its unstoppable rhythm section in bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Donald Edwards, set the evening’s agenda.

THE LYRIC CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF NEW YORK PRESENTS ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY SEASONTHE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF MUSIC: PROGRAMS FROM AROUND THE WORLDFEBRUARY 27, 2008 7.30pm Kosciuscko FoundationAUSTRIA AND BEYONDDavid Taylor and Friends”To the Distant Beloved”

A Journey from Schubert to Mingus

DAVID TAYLOR, Bass Trombone

ADAM HOLZMAN AND MICHAEL HOLOBER, Piano and Keyboards

BELLE EHRESMANN, Beat Box

On February 27, 2008, the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York is pleased to present bass trombone virtuoso David Taylor and Friends in a special autobiographical concert entitled “To the Distant Beloved.” The program, another of the Lyric’s special CHAMZZ offerings, follows Taylor’s musical explorations from Brooklyn to Vienna in a unique blend of jazz and classical repertoire.

The musical range of award-winning musician David Taylor extends from Bachian piety to Yiddish irony, from the idealism of Charles Ives to the hipster nihilism of Lenny Bruce. Inspired by his travels, and his exploration of jazz while at Juilliard, Taylor’s music represents the spirit of improvisation and risk as opposed to conservatory notions of perfection.

The program will showcase the unique sounds of the relatively unknown bass trombone, which Taylor calls a “darkly sparkling instrument.” Taylor has put together a suite of Schubert songs and French music by Ravel, Milhaud, and others. He has also developed a suite combining the music of the Vienna Secession, such as Berg and Schoenberg, with the jazz of Mingus and Carla Brey. Called “A Belle E Golden Hue,” it celebrates his parents’ devoted marriage of sixty years.

Taylor will be joined by Adam Holzman and Michael Holober on piano and keyboards, and Belle Ehresmann on beat box.

In this, as in all concerts at the Lyric, the musicians will speak about the history and background of the music during the evening. And also, as always, a light reception with the artists will follow the concert.

Jean Shepherd as master of ceremonies……Among the highlights of the evening will be a new composition by bass virtuoso Charlie Mingus called “Tia Juana Table Dance.” An authentic Flamenco dancer will accompany the number, which is based on Spanish Flamenco and jazz rhythms. Critic Barry Ulanov said of Mingus “Here is a man who thinks and feels with unending resources both of musical technique and imagination. In other words, an artist.”

Happy Birthday, John Handy!”In Part 2 of our interview with alto saxophonist John Handy, he discusses a unique aspect of his sound, the origins of Charles Mingus’ Lester Young tribute “Goodbye Porkpie Hat,” the night Mingus made a scene listening to him play, the Mingus gig that resulted in the live album Jazz Portraits.”

Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy, Cornell 1964 (Blue Note). The clear winner is this live two-disc concert from long-lost tapes of Mingus’ most boisterous band in its merriest mood. Regarded as a run-through of the (now-legendary) Town Hall concert a few weeks hence, and the European tour that followed, the session has its wayward moments, but it’s jammed with zest and virtuosity. It starts with a head-spinning Jaki Byard piano solo on “Play MediaATFW You” (the initials standing for Art Tatum/Fats Waller), segues to Mingus plucking a soulful bass solo on “Sophisticated Lady,” then moves into a string of original tunes—Mingus classics (“Play MediaFaubus Fables,” “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk,” “So Long, Eric”), some of them played for the first time in public here. Horn solos by Play MediaEric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan, and Johnny Coles sizzle throughout. Drummer Danny Richmond plays near his peak, too. The discs aren’t as revelatory as Monk and Coltrane’s unearthed Carnegie Hall tapes of 1957, which topped this list (and many others) in 2005, but they’ll do. (Better still, in some ways, is the “Jazz Icons” DVD, Charles Mingus: Live in ’64, which lets you watch this same band, playing the same music, much of it a bit more tightly, a few weeks later in Europe.)

Charles Mingus Sextet With Eric Dolphy: “Cornell 1964″ (Blue Note). Newly discovered, this is sheer gold — historic performances by one of the very finest ensembles Mingus ever led. Best of all, there is extraordinary playing — on alto saxophone, bass clarinet and flute — from Dolphy, who died 12 weeks after the gig at age 36. -DON HECKMAN

CHARLES MINGUS SEXTET WITH ERIC DOLPHY, CORNELL 1964 (Blue Note). This was, quite simply, one of the greatest aggregations of instrumental intensity ever to gather for one magical year. And this concert, which took place before the group’s legendary (and, some might say, ill-fated) European tour, exhibits a high-spiritedness and keenness of interplay that exceeds even the recordings from that earlier tour.Gene Seymour

CHARLES MINGUS SEXTET: ‘CORNELL 1964’ (Blue Note). A time capsule that reveals an irrepressible Mingus, on bass and vocals, propelling a short-lived band with both Eric Dolphy and Clifford Jordan on saxophones. Nothing, not even musty sound quality, can diminish the manic ebullience captured here.

NPRArtist: Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy
Album: Cornell 1964The recently unearthed concert by Charles Mingus’ group featuring Eric Dolphy is similarly relevatory – it’s a lusty blowing-session blast from an aggregate that ranks among Mingus’ best. Anchored by the unshakeable drummer Dannie Richmond, this sextet barrels through everything from early piano jazz to the stemwinding wheedles of the avant-garde to a seventeen-minute throwdown on Billy Strayhorn’s theme for the Ellington Orchestra, “Take the A Train.” Dolphy was at his most peak in 1964 – he recorded his classic Out To Lunch the same year – and this band, with Mingus interjecting constantly, keeps up with the saxophonist’s every crazy detour.

Charles Mingus Sextet, “Cornell 1964” (Blue Note)—It’s tough to go wrong when it comes to live recordings of the Mingus band, especially the incarnation that featured the resident geniuses Eric Dolphy and Jaki Byard, as well as the underappreciated Johnny Coles and Clifford Jordan. Still, this newly unearthed concert is notable for the ebullience of its often irascible leader.-Steve Futterman

On this frequently brilliant and warmly recorded concert from March 18, 1964, Charles Mingus reasserts his intense genius. His bass playing, sprightly yet forceful, fast yet tempered, is a wonder to behold. Yet it’s almost impossible to take your attention off everyone else. Jaki Byard, perhaps the most underappreciated pianist in the history of jazz, plays with a flourishing grace that feels like dancing on water. Dannie Richmond’s drumming pays attention to ride, hi-hat, snare, tom, and kick with equal focus, and provides an equal level of striking and skittering. Then there’s Clifford Jordan and Johnny Coles, whose sax and tumpet, respectively, blow and bleat with a tendentious ease usually reserved for Coltrane and Miles. Never mind that they have to play next to Eric Dolphy, whose work on the bass clarinet and flute are mind-blowing. And never mind that nobody knew this concert was recorded, nor that anyone but the people there even knew it existed.
-Tal Rosenberg